Manufacturing and machining of large-scale aircraft components provide challenges to traditional methods. In large scale production of components, both time and cost of machining are driven, in large part, by the need to remove material inherent in making parts from solid billets. This cost is dramatic for those parts made from exotic or expensive materials, such as titanium family alloys.
A reduction in the amount of material to be removed between the starting point and the finished component would reduce both the amount of machine time required and the amount of wasted material. It has been estimated that from 50% to 90% of a typical machined titanium part ends up as chips. In any machining process, a reduction in material to be removed offers a reduction in machining time required. Efforts to more closely match the starting piece to the finished piece are often focused on efficiently creating “near-net shaped” components, that is, components very near their final shape.